Thursday, November 09, 2017

Arvada Voters Makes it Clear: We Want Urban Renewal Reform!

There was only one city-wide municipal contest in this year’s Arvada council election, the at-large seat that was contested by five individuals.

There was also one big unique issue in this year’s election: reform of the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority (AURA).

Because of the $30 Land Deal controversy, questions about what is going on at AURA were part of virtually every candidate questionnaire and forum.

Thus the five contenders staked out positions in varying degrees about what, if anything, should be done to make AURA more accountable, transparent, and fiscally responsible.

And here are the results:

Jim Whitfield, who received 26.29 percent of the vote: reform AURA

Jordon Hohenstein, who got 18.60 percent of the vote: reform AURA

Dave Palm, 9.10 percent: abolish AURA

That is a total of 54 percent of ballots cast for candidates favoring changes to how Urban Renewal is conducted by our city government — a clear majority, arguably a mandate for change.

The one candidate most supportive of AURA tax-giveaways was Dot Miller. She won, but received only 27.71 percent of the vote. (John Malito was rather more ambiguous on the AURA question and got 18.21 percent; still in a Facebook Comment, John wrote: "I do believe Arvada City Council needs to take a long hard look at AURA with the intention of making it more efficient and effective.")

In other words, as a barometer of sentiment for changes at AURA, in the one contest in which every Arvada citizen could vote, a message was sent to City Hall: We Want Urban Renewal Reform!

Arvada for All the People doesn’t want to see anymore $30 Land Deals — we do believe that Arvada’s citizens and taxpayers deserve full accountability and transparency from their City Government, especially when tax dollars are involved.

Consequently, we advocate the following:

1) Economic development is best done through the free market with private dollars at risk to ensure that top priority for tax dollars is the full funding of essential city services:

2) Arvada Urban Renewal Authority (AURA) is chartered by the City and spends tax dollars as part of its function. Therefore, it must be fully accountable to the voters either directly or through city council. Accountability to be recognized by: annual public hearings to review AURA's complete budget; council hearings before approval of any AURA proposal or significant modifications to projects; and AURA business meetings held in the council chambers.

3) Any undertaking proposed by AURA must be economically modeled with a clear return on investment demonstrated before approval.

4) The legitimate reason for the existence of the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority is to mitigate blight — not to drive economic development or implement a City development plan. Blight should be held to a strict interpretation of the criteria set forth in C.R.S. 31-25-103(2). If there are not, therefore, statutorily definable blight issues in Arvada that threaten the safety and health of the citizens, then AURA should be considered to have effectively completed its mission and should be dissolved.

You are the majority — tell Arvada City Council — We Want Urban Renewal Reform!